Exclusive! Take a Tour of Carolina Herrera’s Elegant New York City Home

When you ring the doorbell to Carolina Herrera‘s elegant town house on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a few moments elapse before there’s any sign of life. The door opens to reveal a man in a white butler’s jacket, complete with black epaulets and brass buttons—a vision from another era. He greets you warmly, and as you stand in the softly lit foyer with a black-and-white checkerboard floor, you’re immediately enveloped by the scent of jasmine flowers. It is, you learn later, a fragrance with personal meaning for Herrera, who designed a candle to capture the bouquet: “It reminds me of my childhood,” says the supremely regal designer, dressed in a signature crisp white shirt and black pants. “There was a jasmine vine outside my bedroom window in Venezuela. The blossoms open in the evening, and the smell,” she exclaims with a gasp, “it is so good!”

For the designer, whose clothes are favored by the likes of Jessica Alba, Sandra Bullock, and First Lady Michelle Obama, adding personal details to her New York abode was key. “My home is very personal. I love everything that’s in it,” she says in InStyle‘s March issue, on newsstands now.

She gave us an exclusive tour of her town house, which brims with a Proustian array of gilded furniture, textured fabrics, and delicious fragrances. See it now.